180 THE HUMAN HEART. 



the tube will tend to yield before it, and the contact will be nothing 

 more than the support and maintenance by both sides of any inclina- 

 tion which may exist on either. 



Let us now proceed to the use of the circulation. The first use 

 is, the formation or determination of the body. The second is, the 

 nutrition, maintenance or reformation of the body. The third is, 

 its prolonged vitality, or perpetual stimulation. These three pur- 

 poses mutually suppose each other. The formation of the body is 

 effected by the germinal fluids, determined into membranes, canals, 

 and ultimately into vessels with coats; and as the blood-vessels are 

 the last expression of these, we speak of them as the framers of the 

 body; for the solid comes out of the fluid at first, and the substan- 

 tial body grows from the blood even in the adult state ; the capil- 

 laries moulding the organs; which, however, when they are built, 

 work on their own account, and govern their blood, calling into ex- 

 istence the second use of the circulation, or the nutrition and re- 

 formation of the body. The progress of discovery upon this point, 

 tends to establish the individuality not only of every organ, but of 

 the elements or smallest impersonations of the organs. The depo- 

 sition of the solids from the blood does not take place immediately 

 or by intrusion, but the organs put forth fine cells or stomachs from 

 their several absorbing surfaces, which take what they want from 

 the capillary circulation, and make it over to the organ through a 

 fresh similar organization. In short, the body grows from the vital 

 blood by its own vitality, as a plant grows from the sappy meltings 

 of the ground ; its development is due inside, and in every part, to 

 its own attractions, and not to the rush or thrust of the blood. The 

 increment is not like placing brick upon brick from without, each 

 with no peculiar relation to the building, but every brick is a cellule 

 or little building of itself, similar to the edifice of which it forms 

 part. 



This is a higher idea of nutrition than that which it supplanted, 

 and deserves to be called a vegetable idea, in distinction from the 

 other, which was a mineral idea. We must, however, remember, 

 that in the human body we are on the stair of endless ends, and 

 that no fixed idea will last out of its place and time. We must 

 also note, that we are reasoning in a sphere where the fluids are 



